http://komplexify.com/blog Self referencing and self contradictory Mon, 21 Jul 2008 13:25:00 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Chuck Norris fact generator Chuck Norris can divide by 0. Chuck Norris counted to infinity.  Twice. Chuck Norris destroyed the periodic table, because the only element he recognizes is the element of surprise. Find out more amazing Chuck Norris facts, before he roundhouse kicks you in the face. http://komplexify.com/blog/2008/07/11/link-othe-week-13/ Overheard standing in the line at the gas station. Dude 1: Dude, check it out.  The newspaper says 85-year-old woman gives 100 liters of blood. Dude 2: At once? http://komplexify.com/blog/2008/07/08/bloody-idiots/ I've never understood the appeal of lighting fireworks. This can be partly explained by the fact that I lived most of my life in California, where the Fourth of July is typically celebrated by the cooking of hamburgers, the imbibing of beer, and perhaps by the watching a brief montage of ... http://komplexify.com/blog/2008/07/05/now-thats-what-i-call-a-close-encounter/ Chronotron Imagine you have a time machine, but its only works sporadically, and at any given time you can only go back in time to a single, specific moment.  That's the basic premise of Chronotron, an addictive puzzle game in which you must complete levels back repeatedly going back in time and ... http://komplexify.com/blog/2008/07/04/link-othe-week-12/ I just got my new Tablet PC. Well, a replacement for my old one, anyway.  Somehow I've become the guru of effective Tablet PC use in the classroom, a title of dubious distinction that seems to have been conferred upon me by the simple fact that I carry my Tablet PC ... http://komplexify.com/blog/2008/07/03/upgrades/ In 1980, when I was five years old, I got a xenomorph toy for Christmas. Well, at the time I suppose it would have still been called an Alien, since the "xenomorph" term would be coined until Aliens six years later.  It was a monstrous, horrifying thing that stood two feet tall, with another ... http://komplexify.com/blog/2008/07/01/not-bad-for-a-human/ Primer is not your average time travel movie. It's so confusing, so convoluted, it virtually requires a second (or even third) viewing to simply decipher it, much less enjoy it.  That being said, I also found it fascinating, and it filled my head with questions and ideas for weeks after I first saw it.  ... http://komplexify.com/blog/2008/06/30/weird-science/ Shaggy Dog Story Archive I love a good joke, and I love a bad pun, so I am particularly fond of "shaggy dog stories" and "feghoots," the latter being good jokes based on a narrative punctuated by an exceptionally bad pun.   For example, a well-known (and uncharacteristcally brief) feghoot is the Story of the Separated Twins: A ... http://komplexify.com/blog/2008/06/27/link-othe-week-11/ One of my friends just returned from two weeks in Germany, a trip taken officially under the auspices of a week-long mathematical conference, but unofficially to drink fantastic beer served glasses roughly the size of a Volkswagon. Cause and effect "Those Germans sure have a racket," she commented on her return. "How so?" ... http://komplexify.com/blog/2008/06/26/prost-zum-wohl/ I'm taking a weeklong class on D2L, which is a "course management system" that the South Dakota regential school system is implementing in place of WebCT.  The seminar is populated by other faculty here at Komplexify U that are planning on using D2L in the upcoming semester, partly because it's ... http://komplexify.com/blog/2008/06/25/damn-you-kaufman-and-connelly/